Aeroflex IPO raises $232 million

LONDON – Aeroflex Holding Corp. priced its initial public offering of 17,250,000 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $13.50 per share last week. The company granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,587,500 shares at a 6.25 percent discount.

The IPO raised $232.9 million and, with 65 million shares retained by the company, valued Aeroflex at about $1.11 billion. Of the sum raised Aeroflex (Plainview, New York) expected to retain $211.8 million after underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses.

Aeroflex designs manufactures and markets microelectronic and test and measurement products supporting communication systems, networks and automatic test systems. The stock is now being traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ARX and was at $13.50 on Monday (Nov. 22) morning.

Aeroflex said that $190 million of the net proceeds of the IPO would be used to restructure the company's debt and in particular to purchase some its senior notes due 2015. About $20.8 million would be paid as fees for the termination of previous agreements and to lenders to be allowed to make changes to secured credit facilities.

About $1.0 million would be used for general corporate expenses the company said.